Mini Birthday Vacation

 For my birthday we took a mini-vacation to Leavenworth.  We spent the night in Wenatchee and Ryland thought staying in a hotel was pretty awesome.

 I love Leavenworth, especially when it is all lit-up!

snow + getting out the house + lots of fun Christmas lights + my cute little family = perfect birthday!

8 months old

I feel like I just wrote the 7 month post!  Little man in 8 months old today.  Here's a little update about Ry-Guy:

balancing on his drum

 He's crazy.  Into absolutely everything.  He is not a good climber yet but he is trying HARD, which probably means he'll be an AMAZING climber in about a month.  As you can see in the picture above, he does manage to get up on things after a few attempts.

yams up his nose...

 He is such a ham.  Loves to smile for the camera.  

his favorite play place: the Christmas Tree

 He's on the move - not completely crawling but he doesn't seem concerned about technique. He can drag himself anywhere.

 Handsome. Need I say more?

eating baby cookies

 Child still loves to eat.  He is doing better with nursing (as in actually staying still long enough to finish a feeding.)  Thank goodness for that - I think he's actually put on some weight recently.  But he loves table food so much.  The one thing we've found that he does not like is egg yolk (he gags, it's funny...)  Favorite foods of the month: cottage cheese, mozarella cheese, apricots.  I made him some "cookies" (teething biscuits) and those pretty much rocked his world.  Baby boy is happiest when there is food in front of him.  I made the mistake of letting him have a sip of my Sprite (he just looked so cute reaching for it.)  He thought it was awesome, and thought I was pretty dang mean for not letting him have more. 

 He's gotten pretty attached to Brent lately.  He's starting to get upset when he leaves for work and reaches out to him when he comes home.  It's so sweet.  He's going to be so excited next month when Brent will be home more!

not happy to look like Tigger

 He throws tantrums.  I guess I would too if I had no other way to communicate!  He gets especially frustrated when he can't get somewhere he wants to be.  He wants to walk so badly.  He is constantly pulling himself on on things and loves to take steps around the house holding my hands.  Poor little guy just has so many places he wants to be and he's not getting there scooting around on the floor.  It must be frustrating.

 We love the evenings when everyone is home and we get to play.   Ryland especially loves this weird game that Brent made up - see above.

 Books are pretty awesome and he can entertain himself for the longest time if I give him a nice stack of books.  Hope Santa brings him some more!

Hanging out with cousin Alice

All in all, he's so much fun.  He's got some attitude (like his momma...) but he's a pretty sweet little man.  I think we'll keep him.

How to entertain an 8-month old...

...give him a pot, wrapping paper, and a tree branch.  Ryland played with these guys for a little over an hour straight.

First Snow

Seattle RARELY gets snow (and it's a good thing because our lack of snowplows and crazy hills makes snow a big hazard!)  We got a good 3 inches earlier in the week.  Ryland loved watching it fall!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

 Rylie-bug is in love with our decorations.  He just stares at them for the longest time.  So cute.

 

We put up our tree yesterday - we got it from the cute little tree farm where we got our tree last year as well.  Since we're on a TIGHT budget this year for Christmas - we wanted the most bang for our buck.  This 8 foot tree is nearly bare on top (haha!) - but I think if I get some more ornaments on there you'd hardly notice.  It's definitely not a pretty tree but we decided it has character... 

 It looks kind of sad... more lights and more ornaments needed!  I may have to retire the Burberry ribbon as well, as sad as that is.  This is our largest tree to date.

I was going to make some cute vintage-inspired stockings for all 4 of us (dog included) - but I have so many projects going on right now that the stockings are going to have to wait till next year.

I did Black Friday (which was actually 10 pm Thursday) at Toys R Us.  Stood in line for 40 minutes, ended up being person #200 but it was really pretty painless.  So glad I didn't get there any later than I did because it was becoming madness as I left.  But I got the wooden train set I wanted for Ryland at 50% off - so worth the chaos.  I also found great deals online at Amazon and Old Navy (Got to love online black Friday deals!)

I HEART The Foundary

If you guys haven't checked out this site - it's pretty awesome. Every day there are new deals (and they are really GOOD deals!)  Right now they have the cutest kids' toys and some really fun kitchen stuff and I am really wishing I had my paycheck already...  BUT if you sign up I get some money - so go sign up and check it out!

http://www.thefoundary.com/invite/brandister

week in review

First of all, I'm sure this doesn't bug any of you as much as it bugs me - but new blog design is in the works.  I apologize for the weird title/picture combo going on.  Like I said before, sure no one cares but me!

Rylie-pie (he keeps aquiring nicknames) is a busy guy lately.  He can get around the house pretty well now - he loves to get under things (like wedge his tooshie under the sofa and crawl in the rocking saucer of the exersaucer.)  He is not officially crawling though - he pulls himself along the ground by his arms like the creepy dead girl in The Ring.  Bad analogy, but that's what it reminds me of.  He gets super frustrated too - and will throw his little face into the carpet and scream.  I love it.  Getting mobile is hard work. 

He is a clapping machine!  He loves to applaud himself when he feeds himself.  I need to film this.  Last night he was eating cottage cheese, and every time he got a curd inhis mouth he would start clapping.  Of course my child would find ways to reinforce his own behavior... he must catch on to all the weird reward systems I put in place for myself.

He's also obsessed with books.  He literally throws a tantrum for them whenever he sees them.  I can't wait until he gets better at signing so he has a way to communicate other than screaming.  But back to the books - he loves them.  We go to the library and he picks out board books. He loves to lay down with books by himself and turn the pages.  Looks like he's going to be a bookworm like his momma!

Yesterday I was taking some 3 month photos of baby Addie.  Ryland loves Addie - as in laughs at her when she cries and wants to pull her hair out.  They have matching bear hoodies so I wanted to get a few pictures of them together.  I thought it was sweet Ryland grabbed Addie's hand when she was crying (this was the end of the photoshoot - she was sick of me)

I've been working quite a bit and it's been a great thing.  I am really appreciating every moment I spend at home with my little guy.  He's a good boy for his babysitters so that makes me feel better about leaving. 

Today I'm going to a wedding of one of my old coworkers.  Our budget is soooo tight around here right now (can't wait until Brent is done with this unpaid internship!!!)  I made a wedding present from things I had laying around and think it turned out pretty cute.  I may make an "A" for our own home.

The not so great part of this week?  My child is waking up 3 times a night to eat.  I'm exhausted.